Grant Creasey wins Lacombe mayor’s seat

Lacombe landed a new mayor in Grant Creasey following Monday’s election, along with all new faces on council except for one.

“It was a much more positive outcome this time around,” said Creasey following the announcement of his victory. “I look forward to serving the people of Lacombe.

According to the unofficial results, he garnered 1,964 votes compared to 1, 417 for his competitor Peter Bouwsema.

“It feels very good – speaking from experience of being a second place finisher, this is a much better feeling.

Creasey said his win means a more open government for Lacombe; a more accessible government, and perhaps one that is able to put our fiscal house in order as well,” he said.

“We’ve got a lot of new faces on council, we’re going to have some new faces in administration, so we’ve got a pretty fresh, new slate overall,” he said. “And I look forward to putting my fingerprint on some of it and working in concert with the new councillors and the incumbents as well, and our hard-working City employees, too.”

Creasey said the support he’s has received over the course of his campaign has been overwhelming.

He added that hiring a new CEO is a top priority at this point with the departure of Dion Pollard.

“There’s definitely some work to be done on my behalf yet to try and convince those people (who didn’t vote for him) that the majority did make a good choice. He got an awful lot of votes which I expected he would, and ran a good, clean campaign, so yes my congratulations go to him,” he said of Bouwsema.

“Well, needless to say I’m feeling sad that the people of Lacombe have chosen not to support my candidacy for mayor, but they have spoken; they’ve spoken very clearly and they have chosen Mr. Creasey. I wish him and the new council all the best as they move Lacombe forward over the next four years,” he said. “I respect the decision of the people.”

As to what’s next, he said there will of course be more time for his business and family, “And things that I’ve put off because I decided to run for council. Some of those personal things will be taken care of.

“There will be a rest period for awhile and then I hope at some point I’ll get involved in some community organization again,” he said. “I love this community; I love Lacombe,” he said.

In this election, 3,419 people out of 10,000 eligible voters cast ballots – a 34% voter turnout.

“It’s disappointing that I won’t be able to continue on as a new mayor for the City of Lacombe,” explained Bouwsema.

Unofficially, a virtually brand new city council now looks like this – Don Gullekson with 1,575 votes, Thalia Hibbs with 2,457 votes, Cora Hoekstra with 2,265 votes, Jonathan Jacobson with 1,672 votes, incumbent Rueben Konnik with 1,562 votes and finally Chris Ross with 1,622 votes.

In Lacombe County, the unofficial results show John Ireland winning over incumbent Rod McDermand in Division 1; incumbent Ken Wigmore winning over Denise Sumner in Division 5 and incumbent Keith Stephenson winning over Bob Szasz in Division 6.

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